It’s GM IPO day! Roughly 30% of the company -- 478 million shares of stock -- is up for sale today on Wall Street. With an expected purchase price of $33 a share, it’s poised to be the largest initial public offering in U.S. history.

In honor of today’s massive exercise in commerce, the top five most-historic IPOs.

1. Ford Motor Company, 1956: Henry Ford never wanted to take the company public. Then again, he had a lot of wacky ideas. His grandson, Henry Ford II, had different views. Hank the Deuce took the company public in 1956 and raised $660 million. Ford’s lead advisor on the IPO was Goldman Sachs. It was this deal, more than anything else, where Goldman made their bones as a dominant Wall Street player.

2. Pets.com, 2000: Remember when any idiot could start of business, slap of .com on the end of the name, and get rich? No company personified the irrational exuberance of the late-90s tech bubble like pets.com. Their February 2000 IPO raised $82.5 million. They were bankrupt before the end of the year.

3. Dutch East India Company, 1602: The first company to issue stock. The Dutch East India Company was pretty much the worst thing ever. Outfitted with a private army and navy, they raped and pillaged the undeveloped world under the authority of a royal charter. But they also paid a consistent dividend of at least 12% from 1602 through 1696. So, yay mercantilism?

Interesting side note, Dutch East India was responsible for the first market bubble. Unlike ridiculous tech start-ups or homes purchased on interest only smartARMs, the Dutch tanked their economy speculating on…wait for it…tulips. No, really.